“There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24
Joseph Scriven was excited! He and his fiancé had planned for their wedding a long time and soon it would come true. Or would it? Tragically, the day before the wedding, Joseph found himself on the bank of a river watching as the lifeless body of his loved one was pulled from the water. She had fallen from her horse and died after a blow to her head. Joseph was crushed. He felt he needed to go far away to begin a new life.
A man of short stature with iron-gray hair and light blue eyes that sparkled when he talked, Joseph began his new life in Port Hope, Canada, doing odd jobs as charity for those in need. He was often seen carrying a saw to cut fire wood for the poor and aged. When someone said they would pay for his services, he told them he only did it for the needy.
Ten years after arriving in Port Hope, Joseph received word that his mother was very ill. In a letter he wrote to her, he included the words of a poem he wrote especially for her. That poem began with the words, “What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.”
Back at Port Arthur, Joseph fell in love a second time. Once again they planned a beautiful wedding, and once again tragedy struck. Shortly before the big day, his fiancé died from tuberculosis. Once again Joseph’s heart was broken. Yet in all his grief, he continued to help those in need. He served the people of Port Hope every opportunity he had.
In October of 1886, Joseph himself became very ill. The story is told that in his sickness he became delirious and wandered outside his cabin where he fell into a small creek and drowned. Scriven was 66 years old. A short time after his death, the people of Port Hope erected a large monument outside of town giving tribute to the man who wrote the words to the precious hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
Joseph Scriven lived a life filled with disappointment and tragedy. Time and again his faith was tested by his loving God, yet God always assured Joseph that he is still the best and dearest Friend. Certainly Joseph never realized that the poem he wrote for his mother would bring joy and comfort to millions more.
What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!
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